Marois unveils homeless platform, slams Couillard on constitution

PQ leader Pauline Marois was on the campaign trail in Montreal this morning.

She was unveiling her party's homeless platform, but also fielded questions about Philippe Couillard's comments made yesterday about the possibility of re-opening the constitutional question.

According to Marois, Couillard cannot sign the Canadian constitution without holding a referendum first.

The Liberal leader suggested on Friday that he hoped federal politicians would be open to accepting Quebec as a distinct society within Canada.

But Marois said no one in Quebec has had a voice in the matter.

"He has no mandate to discuss and to propose an orientation for signing the constitution of 1982," she said. "If he wants to do that, he has to consult the population, and he has to present a referendum on this issue."

As for the PQ's homeless strategy, Marois said $52 million has already been set aside for new initiatives, including the construction of 500 new housing units specifically for the homeless.

She also wants better access to mental and physical health care for the homeless and thinks bringing those services to those in need is the best way to achieve it.

Marois again defended Louise Mailloux, the PQ candidate in Gouin, who has written in the past comparing baptisms and circumcision to rape, and that rabbis profit off the kosher food industry.

Mailloux, Marois said, "accepts our program and our orientation, and that's what I want from her part."

She denied that media firestorms surrounding the nomination of Pierre-Karl Péladeau, Mailloux and now-withdrawn candidate for Lafontaine Jean Carriere, who had a sign reading "F*** Islam" on his Facebook page, have overshadowed her campaign.